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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Putin's little fingers in the Ukraine, Cuban agents in Venezuela and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt all remind us how uniquely vulnerable democracy is totalitarianism. In the United States, cities aren't burning and streets aren't filling up with bloodied bodies, but the government of phone and pen also shows us that we are always one election away from losing our freedom.

When a political system becomes polarized between the forces of freedom and the forces of totalitarianism, then the forces of freedom have to win every single election. Meanwhile the totalitarians only have to win one election and then spend the rest of time reconstructing civic institutions, mobilizing thugs and making it structurally impossible for the other side to compete.

Even if the other side occasionally wins elections, the totalitarian process continues chugging along because the totalitarian side follows no rules while holding its opponents to above and beyond the letter of the law. The law constrains the ability of the law-abiding party to undo the work of the totalitarian party, but not the ability of the totalitarian party to pursue its agenda and undo the work of its opponents.

When one side is on a long march through the institutions while the other seeks consensus, the long marchers will win.

A democratic political system in which a leading political faction is totalitarian cannot endure.

We understand the practical lessons of that in Egypt, but less so in the United States. A political process that included the Muslim Brotherhood could not continue. Everyone except Obama Inc. prattling on about inclusive politics understood that. The rightfully elected status of Morsi did not matter. What did matter was that the Muslim Brotherhood could not and would not work together with anyone. It did not want an open political process, it wanted absolute power.

If the Democratic Party continues to function as a radical leftist party, abiding by no laws, imposing radical change unilaterally, and using its media to cover for its corruption and political sins, the United States will face a Venezuelan or Egyptian scenario.

The United States is a fairly civilized place. Its people, despite the recession, are doing fairly well. It may not seem like that when we look at the unemployment rates, but unlike the Egyptians, we can afford bread and unlike the Venezuelans, our stores still have milk and toilet paper. There are still enough job prospects out there, that people haven't given up. At least not all of them.

That's why the Tea Party, America's Orange Revolution or Arab Spring, was fairly muted by comparison. Its participants were older, educated and prosperous. If they actually were the illiterate violent armed rabble that the left has done its best to portray them as, the scenes in Cairo and Caracas would be replaying themselves in the United States.

The Tea Party was a political protest on the right by the small businessman and the established professional. It was and is an effort by a threatened middle class to salvage its position that for all its moments of anger lacked the violent desperation that we see in Venezuela. But the differences lie in political culture and desperation. The political culture has been polarized and degraded to its lowest points. The rising left is angrier and more militant than ever and the right is coming to feel that the political process is useless and its gatekeepers are biased against them.

Combine that perception with more economic hammer blows against the middle class by the redistributionists, add a sense of hopelessness and contrast that with growing arrogance by the powers of the left and things will get very ugly.

America's Two Party system has worked because both parties, for the most part, were not absolutists. The exceptions, like FDR, did a great deal of damage, but their sway was limited. What has changed is the level of mobilization, coordination and integration on the left. Social institutions, major corporations, the media, unions, non-profits and the educational system have been knitted together into a totalitarian entity with an agenda. This state of affairs transcends democracy and cannot be remedied by democratic elections.

Even if Republicans were to win the White House and dominate the House and the Senate, they would still face a totalitarian entity whose judges would make laws, whose media would subvert democracy, whose educational institutions and entertainment industry would reprogram the people and whose bureaucracy would undermine any decision that it did not like.

Every area of life is being politicized and this politicization did not take place as a result of elections and cannot be stopped with mere elections. The politicization of everything is the indication of a totalitarian movement at work. To politicize a thing is to claim ownership over it. Universal politicization means absolute power for the politicizers.

Political conflicts with totalitarians are a cultural war. The totalitarians employ every cultural, political and economic element that they can against their enemies. They follow only those laws that are convenient meanwhile they multiply laws to pin down their opponents. They define entire elements of the population that they hope to dismpower or destroy, whether it's the Copts in Egypt or the private sector middle class in the United States, and execute their plans.

Resisting totalitarians cannot simply be an electoral activity. In a system of democratic political elections, the ballot box becomes the weakest element in defying totalitarians who can always find ways to buy elections, steal elections or convince the people that if they don't vote the wrong way then the sky will fall and the oceans will rise. Those who follow no laws have many options; those who follow them have only a few.

The electoral wars matter, but the totalitarians have to be fought for control of every institutions and defied at every point of control. It's not enough to win an election, their ideas have to be discredited. It's not enough to swap out politicians when entire institutions have to be swapped out. The core solution isn't political; it's personal. It's in how we live.

Totalitarians politicize everything. And that really means everything from the food you eat to the books you watch to the way you heat your home and drive to work. Individually we can all make choices that neutralize the politicization even in matters as simple as choosing the movies we watch or leaving products with environmentalist tripe on the packaging on the shelf. Local battles are also bigger battles as Common Core demonstrates. And the synagogue or church you attend is also a statement of support for the left or a rejection of the left.

The first stage of a culture war is to cease supporting the enemy. The second stage is to push back by building up your institutions that make your way of life possible. The third stage is to use those institutions against the enemy.

Anyone can engage in the first stage of the culture war by making more conservative choices. The second stage requires a bit more planning, but it's a product of the first stage. And when the institutions of the second stage become powerful enough and successful enough, then the third stage becomes possible.

Elections alone will not defeat the left. Totalitarian movements aren't defeated at the voting booth, but in the hearts of men and women. And if their grip on power continues, then the scenes of violence and terror that we see on the evening news will come to our streets and cities.

39
comments:

RAM
said...

How do you detach enough people from the degenerate pre-totalitarian culture soon enough? Even some alleged conservatives have bought into that culture on some level.

"And if their grip on power continues, then the scenes of violence and terror that we see on the evening news will come to our streets and cities. "

Americans will not stand up to a totalitarian regime. Obama tapped into an American psyche that proves too many years of good living and plenty for all have made us soft and without fire. I can only hope that there are a few patriots left willing to put all on the line. America is rotted. Thanks for letting me rant Mr. Greenfield.

The first stage in our culture war is to get people to stop allowing themselves to be distracted by porn. It distracts from family, marriage, church, community, relationships, and jobs. And it is pervasive because so much of contemporary culture would be called pornography by our grandparents.

No, no, no, no. Daniel-- like all "conservatives" you walk up to the entrance and refuse to enter. Yes, your prognosis is 100% correct. But to posit that the Tea Party is some sort of remedy is to lose sight of how the whole thing came to pass. "Conservatism" won't solve anything (says me, a recovering lifelong conservative). It is simply progressivism on second speed. The real issue is what will succeed the current progressive disease-- which is killing the host. The successor state won't be a conservative one. It will have to be something that speaks to the most basic of issues, inspires and looks to the future. As much as I sympathize with the tricorn hat crowd, all this Founding Fathers worship is about as inspiring as Mother Russia, the Orthodox Church and Tsars were to the White Russians during 1918.

I've never seen this nation as polarized as it is now--and I lived through the sixties. One way or another, there's going to be widespread rioting, violence, revolution--call it what you will--in this country within the next decade. The left has achieved too much to turn back now; either the right is going to say enough and start it themselves, or the right is going to push back against the left and the left will start it. Either way, it's going to be ugly.

If it is war the left wants,then let them make the best of it. A 2000 yr. morality of sacrifice has to be challenged. We are not our brothers keeper contrary to BO,the left or the right. The stages the Sultan proposes makes a good start. But as AR said a political solution will not change a culture only a moral revolution can pursued men to change.

Mandingo, how I grok your mouth music. It is inexpressibly vexing to see Republicans always playing the game as if they are still Dewey vs. Truman when in fact they are Kerensky vs. Lenin. You can never, ever get it across to these knuckleheads that there's anything going on here but the give-and-take of town-council politics. That's why they always look like deer caught in the headlights, utterly baffled. Or they complain about double standards. We wish there were double standards! Did anyone ever bother to complain about Stalin or Mao having double standards? There's only one standard: That which benefits the Totalitarians is good, that which inconveniences them is bad. Working- and middle-class white people inconvenience them. Jews (as Jews) inconvenience them, and you can just feel them champing at the bit, waiting for the Holocaust to recede just a little bit further into history, so they can really go after Israel.

When folks are being arrested by SWAT teams for selling raw milk you can understand that stage two of your plan is a declaration of war.So what happens when you start selling books and have your door kicked in at 3am on some trumped up charges relating to racism or national security or whatever it is they can get you on?Do you go quietly, or...

Daniel, I find your reasoning depressing, even more so because it is correct and I cannot find any flaw. The institutions of the left were infiltrated decades ago and now the infiltrators have moved into positions of power in those. Blame Vietnam for losing academia (teaching professions were exempt from the draft) and Watergate for losing the media (how many wannabe journalists back then wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein or just hated Nixon?). I don't see any way of getting those back. Better to just burn them down, either figuratively or literally.

My memories go back quite a bit and I've never seen politics this polarized or a media so willing to shill for one side. The reason was, back then, both political parties accepted some limits on what they would do and the media tried to pretend they were even-handed. Shrewsbury is correct in that nowadays it's less like Democrats vs. Republicans and more like the Bolsheviks vs. the Menscheviks. The reason the Bolsheviks won was that they accepted no limits on what they couldn't or wouldn't do. We are seeing the same play out today.

I am of a mind that in any conflict, it's the enemy that makes the rules. None of this "If we do what they do, we're as evil as them" nonsense. Reciprocal treatment is the only way to make the enemy accept limits of what they will do. I'll just leave it right there.

You're far too optimistic about America. Compared to Egyptians, Ukrainians, or Venezuelans, Americans are cowards. One hundred years of public education have dumbed down and transformed a nation of fearless pioneers who conquered every adversity known to man, to quivering jellyfish hiding in their basements jerking off to reruns of American Idol.

Even the bravest of our people are in the process of being thoroughly brainwashed in the military.

The appropriate historical analogy is probably the slow barbarian conquest of the Roman Empire.

As a top-down, Command & Control Ideology, when Progressive Elites determine a path forward, they communicate their marching orders through their chain of command: Politics/Judicial, Social/Cultural/Religious, Economic, Academia, Media.

I have developed a "mechanism" that, frankly I am seeking partners to help get off the ground, that; "collectivizes Individualism." A system that allows us to coalesce around, and advance righteous ideas - EVERY DAY, and to acquiesce from supporting entities who have established themselves as our adversary.

If interested in hearing more about it, I can be reached through facebook or aol @ earickward@aol.com

Reading the comment section always depresses me as those who read your top-notch blog are obviously elderly, well educated, often Jewish, white males/females and very few, if any of the other age, political affiliation or 48 Facebook genders, while your multi-subject razor sharp analyses you blog about so would merit to be spread to the still malleable minded student age future leaders of America group to serve as an antidote to the University's left-wing indoctrination. However in present day America the chance of you getting harassed by the IRS is much greater than you getting a professorate at one of the top educational institutions.

A house of cards can only go so high until it collapses. Newspaper are going broke, even the Times has had to lay off people. I hear NBC is near-broke, and millions of families can no longer afford college for their kids, thus sparing those kids from the nut jobs who now populate academia.. Meanwhile, trade schools are flourishing, and gun sales are way up, due to people feeling unsafe in their homes. It takes a pretty hard kick in the head to get Americans off the couch, but more to the point, they have stopped consuming at least some of the products bred by socialism. As long as reasonable people keep starving the beast, there is hope.

Naresh, Americans aren't cowards. They're civilized. They've lived in a civilized world for several generations now in which things work without the threat of force. It would take a while for them to readjust to a more primal reality that governs in most other places. They still believe the system works.

Anonymous, the right does need to form internal alliances between all the factions

Blert, the mainstream media is hurting, unfortunately the left has figured out how to dumb down its media apparatus with sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy. We have to adapt to a new threat.'

Mindrider, some are, some may not be, but the people who will read a 1,500 word article every day written from a conservative pov are a self-selecting group. That said, what I really do is generate ideas and talking points for other people to make use of beyond here.

W fight for minds with ideas, and this is how we're going to win. The problems were have right now IMO is that too many people in influential positions (politicians, lobbyists, media, activists) are employing "mind control" strategies of sorts to steer the country in one direction or another.

People are turning away from mainstream media in droves. It's not all about political views, though. I believe a large number of Americans are bored to death with news coverage and what to predictably hear when they turn on the liberal stations and conservative stations.

The level of discourse and action among the American public would increase exponentially if the media and political movements were more interesting and engaging. Not mere entertainment, but intellectual stimulation. You excel at that.

It would be an excellent idea for the MSM to expose people to a variety of positions and issues not covered by the mainstream media (which you do).

I've been watching vides and reading about Anarchism lately. I disagree with some of the views of self-proclaimed Anarchists (especially atheism), but am intrigued by the idea that people can be truly free and exist without governments but with a voluntary yet organized system that favors the implementation of ideas that are in the best interests of people.

The problem is that Anarchism relies on the innate goodness of people, and there are clearly problems with that. Serious problems. But what to do? Totalitarianism is a dreadful option, and Anarchism is an open door for a tyrant to slip through. Plant a single doubt in someone's mind about something and it can end in good or evil.

Heresy for a Conservative to see any benefit in Anarchism? I guess so LOL, but it's interesting. Right now many reject mass surveillance and groups of self-proclaimed Anarchists are responding to this with legal challenges and creation of anonymity sites and email services.

"As long as reasonable people keep starving the beast, there is hope." I agree Sophie. This is why I didn't vote in the presidential election. Starve out the political beast, make the politicians worry about low voter turnout. The less turnout the more worried each side will be about the narrow margin between failure and success.

Squeakers worry politicians as much as they worry sports fans and teams LOL.

Having worked on the left and then with the Tea Party, I have to agree that the task of organizing is a great deal harder with individualistic patriot movements, harder because they are decent, moral individuals who work for a living instead of making a living off their politics, who reject the cheap thrills and sleazy gains of politics, and they want to dismantle government power, not add to it.

All these things -- autonomy, morality, decency, rejection of graft -- fly in the face of how politics works.

So how do you empower the grassroots of the Tea Party? They are insecure and very weary of fighting. They have decided to get into the foul water and fight for what they're losing, and the foulness of the water is both surprising and appalling to them.

Plus, they work for a living.

Most of all, they have bad friends. Many politically savvy people are claiming and exploiting their power.

What the Tea Party needs is a revival. An old-fashioned American spiritual community where they declare victory, because they have accomplished a great deal, enough that they're met with genuine fear-and-loathing when they intervene in politics. I've had the great luck to watch Trevor Loudon and the late Larry Grathwohl speak to many Tea Party groups, and every time, the thing I hear after they've left is this tremendous sense of relief that somebody is encouraging them to go on.

I think the problem for the Tea Party is basically a psychological problem: they are genuinely sickened by the double standards and offenses directed at them because they are decent people. They need to hear that more. And they need better advice about some of the nuts and bolts of politics -- making lists of supporters and not giving those lists away to untrustworthy people.

Nothing in the world of politics comes naturally to these people, yet they keep going to committee meetings and testifying and lobbying, all with this keenly respectable, bourgeois sense of embarrassment that they're overstepping or intruding.

That's what is admirable about them. But it doesn't lend itself to playing politics well, with the current rules.

Mindrider, I am 43, female, Baptist, high school education (no college), currently homeschooling my 15 year old son. Sultan Knish is my favorite blog and I read it religiously. In fact, I require my son to read some of these articles as part of his schooling. This uneducated white woman is making a difference and there are millions like me that you never hear about in the media. I even convinced a Turk in the uk to read a few of the articles here. Don't give up hope. :)

Daniel, I don't consider America to be civilized. It's decadent, not civilized. There's a big difference. Civilization creates valuable art, literature, and music, makes real advances in science, civilizes uninhabitable places and elevates barbaric peoples. Civilization built the US Highway system and put a man on the moon. Civilized people fight for freedom. They are civilized because they recognize principles and values higher than themselves. That's why they're willing to sacrifice their own lives to cross an ocean or a continent and to subdue the earth.

Modern America is decadent. Civilization does not consist in bread and circuses, or Facebook.

It didn't take much to bring out the frustration of Readers, today. Sounding like a hairy-chested hero is hard to resist, even if Daniel only suggested a peaceful, economic revolution, but I can tell those suggesting the pain is so great that we must take "action", are too young to remember Jimmy Carter, another silly left-leaning President. Those times were felt as unbearable, even though laws were not being ignored to any great extent. It was after Viet Nam, Nixon (who really ended it) and a dangerous Cold War world. His economics were as dumb as Zero's and he cut our Armed Forces, as if "turning the other cheek" would induce the tyrants to go back to helping their countries get out of the 19th Century. Inflation was a pain that everyone of us felt; we, today, have yet to feel that inevitability. That pain will come, and with it, resistance to the Socialism of the Demorats of today, we'll come from both sides of society.

Right now, there is not enough "pain" to get everyone to turn their gaze away from making a living. Don't be impatient, and don't be in jail when we need you. Those who follow Marxist pied-pipers always regret it. They need a revolution to take total power, and actually hope the Right will give them the opportunity of a violent revolution. Bloody ones won't be reversed, and a history, we don't want, will play out to our endless regret. The pendulum always takes "too long" to start back, but think about it; our enemies in the Media and the faculty lounges are seeing their influence decline. Universities are seen, more and more, as an expensive prolongation of adolescence and a financial con-job. Hollywood and sitcom TV will lose their influence too, but Joe-Sixpack hasn't figured out that he might be better off learning to read for entertainment. Not likely, but he might. Soon it will be easier to convince those politically favored that they are worse off, in what's really important, and they too must boycott those who are financing the Left. We have to show them, politely.Regards,

I so wish that I could dismiss this post as hysterical overreaction, but as soon as Hugh Chavez, by fair means or foul, became president of Venezuela in 1999, I felt the wind shifting and wondered if Ronald Reagan's life's work was being undone. I no longer wonder: All around the world it is. The terrible part of it is that my children, the eldest of whom was born during Reagan's presidency and raised in a right-wing, religious home, do not understand what is at stake and do not care. Their atheistic, left-wing contemporaries do understand and care. The future does not look bright for America, or for the world.

As Tina T. pointed out, the decent among us work for a living. Given the tax system (created to support those lolling on the government payroll), working for a living means spending a lot of time and energy simply 'getting back to go', before you have time and energy left over to get involved in attempting to change our political system. The Left enjoys wasteful subsidies and bloated government salaries for their lazy corrupt political followers, a major tactical advantage for them in the current political struggle.

One idea hobbles anyone who attempts to stop the Left, that we are 'our brothers' keeper'. In the hands of the Left, this poisonously false concept becomes 'charity' at gunpoint enforced by our predatory government.

We have a specific nature as human beings and given that nature, in order to survive, that is with our lives as a standard of value, we must think.

In that context, individual rights should be inviolate. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a damned good start. Our constitution goes further but portions of it, the Interstate Commerce clause, for example, have been perverted to allow government to grow without bound.

The Left holds as a basic premise that the individual is nothing and the all encompassing, all powerful socialist state is everything. In their hands, this deadly anti-concept becomes justification for political violence and murder a la Castro, Chavez, Mao, Stalin, etc.

We must recognize the sanctity of the individual, must passionately embrace well reasoned individualism, against the predatory activities of those who would install tyranny in this country. That includes keeping what you earn by right and not having your hard earned money grabbed at gun point.

Life without freedom is not worth living as demonstrators in Venezuela and the Ukraine show us daily as they put their lives on the line in support of that crucial value.

But Americans must recognize that freedom comes at the price of being responsible for one's own life.

That is, Americans must recognize that the phrase 'We're from the government and we're here to help you' properly translated from Left wing garbage speak really means 'We're from the government and we're here to enslave you.'

Daniel, I am a regular reader, and admirer of your stand for values and principles. You make some great points, and it is very important to realize how vulnerable democracy is. But I cannot agree that it is so one-sided: the "Left" is the problem. It would be much easier to address if it were that simple. For example, you say: "Social institutions, major corporations, the media, unions, non-profits and the educational system have been knitted together into a totalitarian entity with an agenda." But most "major corporations" are in the "Right" not the "Left." Whether the Koch Brothers or Chamber of Commerce types, they overwhelmingly support the Republican party and most conservative causes and candidates.Peter

@ Lightbringer: "but as soon as Hugh Chavez, by fair means or foul, became president of Venezuela in 1999,..."Kind of like George W. Bush's "election" in 2000?@ DenisO: "It was after Viet Nam, Nixon (who really ended it)..."Sorry, Nixon prolonged Viet Nam, despite his 1968 campaign promise of a "secret plan" to end the war.. More US casualties after his election than under LBJ.

Keliata, Please reconsider voting, sometimes it is absolutely frustrating, and most of the time your favored candidate may lose, but it's still at least one way to raise, however feebly, your own voice. Once you get started, you may find others of like mind and all your voices combined can make quite a bit of noise.sophie.

"But most 'major corporations' are in the 'Right' not the 'left.'" I have to disagree with this statement. I think at one time it was true, but major multi-national corporations can no longer be counted on to support the conservative right. They are too interested in expanding their operations into other countries. They kow tow to the left's diversity agenda. They no longer value the contributions of individuals (except at the highest levels). Everything is about the "team," which of course is made up of a multi-cultural, multi-gendered, group. They enforce a code of adherence to the left's doctrine by punishing employees who voice political opposition to the left. Even if it is done on their own time and in their own personal space. Corporations forbid their employees to make statements that might be considered racist, or islamophobic on social media or websites if the individual making the comments can be seen to be affiliated with them. You see, doing anything that might be considered damaging to the corporation is prohibited to the individual at work or at home once he/she/it is on the payroll.

The answer lies with Pinochet's response to it in Chile. Have a coup, round up all of the socialists and communists in the public service and government bureaus and shoot them. Reset all of the government departments back to where they should be and then, when everything is running as it should, reinstate elections.

I can offer a few much-needed words of hope. I am from New Zealand and I can give you the good news that down here, it is the *left* that is under siege. (The same goes for Australia.)

Ok it *is* true that (like the rest of the West), the lefties still control education and the MSM but (also as in other countries) the MSM is being greatly weakened here. The National govt here have also introduced charter schools here and the leftist education - sorry, *indoctrination* sector are trying to fight them tooth-and-nail (as such schools will greatly undermine their ability to brainwash the young).

The most popular blogs in New Zealand and Australia are both right-wing ones -

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php

Another good right-wing blog here - http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/

NZ and Australia are remarkably different to the rest of the West, and (IMO) one reason for that is our damn-the-torpedoes take-no-prisoners attitude to public debate.

Most of the public here CAN see through the leftist BS *and* we on the right here are very good at destroying leftist arguments using logic and reason (along with a nice dose of invective now and again... :) )

I won't dress things up though - the US, UK and Europe are now *completely dominated* by the left. That's why I see us folks "downunder" as being so important - it is we who are now the *fortress* that defends Western culture and values.

Seldom does one hear such a reasoned anlysis or such a concise dissectiom of the tactics of the Left. A police state will result if those who oppose these extremists refused to ackknowledge the culture war and demand to focus on economic issues and occupy a "moral high ground" while the Marxists use this high ground to push a war on women, etc, campaign to slander and crucify those who oppose their radical utopian schemes.

The Progressive Party has been in charge since their founder was sworn in as President in September 1901. Liberty has been losing ever since. Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly as in the last 5 years. But losing nonetheless. I believe the Tea Party must wrest control of the Republican Party and destroy the vestiges of Progressivism from its ranks. Until the people have a real alternative they can see and understand, the long down hill slide will continue unabated. Somehow, someway, in the face of an overpowering culture, all of us must regain the vision of America's greatness and work to restore it. Daniel is right. It can't be done just winning a few elections. It must be done through strong cultural influences on all our institutions. The Progs knew this and they knew it would be a long, hard slog that would take many decades. They have pressured from the outside and worked from the inside for a very long time, winning one small victory at a time to take us to this point. Lovers of liberty and freedom will have to do the same to retake the field.

I think the fact that the ratings of the lefty MSM news organizations like CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc., are plummeting is a sign that people are doing just what you say - they are not supporting the leftist dialogue or ideology. People see and hear the lies and tune out. Don't think that "they" don't realize it. People aren't buying their BS. Also, everyone I know HATES Obama and his big lie about the democrats' Obamacare. They will try to trivialize its effect, but it is hurting Americans every day.